occasionally bombarding the headquarters in an irregular manner

September 27, 2012

publisher in unfortunate choice of words

Makinson added that a prerequisite to any e-book market is a digital copyright regime which protects the interests of authors. The General Administration of Press and Publication, China's publishing regulator, has said that under China's 12th Five-Year Plan it will roll out policies aimed at strengthening the digital publishing market. That includes research and development efforts targeting digital copyright protection technology.

"This is something which, three years ago, I was very concerned about in China, where there wasn't really a copyright regime in place. And I really want to pay tribute to the GAPP and the enormous progress that has been made over the last couple of years in putting in place a framework for digital copyright," said Makinson at the forum.

I know he was referring specifically to digital copyright, but in general I don't think the man in charge of Penguin books should be 'paying tribute' to the agency which is also responsible for censoring Chinese writers on behalf of the state.

That's always been the problem with abusive CPC rhetoric, it just sounds so... silly. I remember back when they were calling Chris Patten the "son of a tango dancer". It's like something out of Monty Python.